Transcriber's Notes:

Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently corrected. A [list] of other changes made can be found at the end of the book. Footnotes were sequentially numbered and placed at the end of each chapter. The page headers of the book on the odd numbered pages are presented as sidenotes.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

FRENCH SERIES No. III

THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN ENGLAND

Published by the University of Manchester at

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS (H. M. McKechnie, Secretary)

12 Lime Grove, Oxford Road, MANCHESTER

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.

London: 39 Paternoster Row

New York: 443-449 Fourth Avenue and Thirtieth Street

Chicago: Prairie Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street

Bombay: 8 Hornby Road

Calcutta: 6 Old Court House Street

Madras: 167 Mount Road

THE TEACHING
AND CULTIVATION OF THE
FRENCH LANGUAGE
IN ENGLAND DURING TUDOR
AND STUART TIMES

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON THE PRECEDING PERIOD

BY
KATHLEEN LAMBLEY, M.A.

Lecturer in French in the University of Durham
Sometime Assistant Lecturer in French in the University of Manchester

MANCHESTER
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
12 LIME GROVE, OXFORD ROAD
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, ETC.
1920

PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

No. CXXIX

All rights reserved.

PREFACE

The present work, begun during the author's tenure of a Faulkner Fellowship in the University of Manchester, and completed in subsequent years, is an endeavour to trace the history of the teaching and use of French in England during a given epoch, ending with the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the Revolution of 1689, which events mark the beginning of a new period in the study of the French language in this country. No attempt has been made to treat the wider topic of French influence in England in its literary and social aspects (this has already been done by competent hands), though this side of the question is naturally touched upon occasionally by way of reference or illustration.

I gladly take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to Professor L. E. Kastner, at whose suggestion this investigation was undertaken, for his generous assistance, and the unfailing interest he has shown in my work during the whole course of its preparation. I am likewise considerably indebted to Dr. Phœbe Sheavyn for helpful criticism and advice, to Professor Tout for kindly reading through the introductory chapter, and to Mr. J. Marks for a careful revision of the proofs and many useful indications. I owe a great deal to my father also, whose sympathetic advice and encouragement did much to lighten my task. Nor can I close this list of acknowledgments without recording my obligation to the Secretary of the Press, Mr. H. M. McKechnie, for the valuable assistance he has so freely given me during the progress of this volume through the Press.

KATHLEEN LAMBLEY.

Durham, January 1920.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

INTRODUCTORY

[CHAPTER I]

PAGE

The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

3

French grammars in mediaeval England—The use of the French language—Latin, French, and English vocabularies—French at the Universities—Popularity of French in the thirteenth century—Ceases to be a vernacular in England—Treatises for teaching French—A treatise on French verbs—The Orthographia Gallica—The Tractatus Orthographiae—T. H. Parisiis studentis—Walter de Bibbesworth—French in the schools and Universities—The fourteenth century—Treatises on French—The Nominale—Model letters—Recovery of English in the second half of the fourteenth century—Deterioration of Anglo-French—English in official documents and correspondence—Decline in use of French.

[CHAPTER II]

The Fifteenth Century

26

Triumph of continental French over Anglo-French—"Doux françois de Paris" a foreign language—Standard of French taught in England—Femina—Treatises on Grammar—Barton's Donait—Epistolaries—Books of conversation in French—The Cambridge manuscript in French and English—First printed books for teaching French—Dialogues in French and English—Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Pynson—French by conversation—Approaching improvement in the standard of French taught in England—Palsgrave's Grammar.

PART II

TUDOR TIMES

[CHAPTER I]

The French Language at Court and among the Nobility

61

French at the Court of the Tudors—English neglected by foreigners—Latin a spoken language—Defective pronunciation of the English—Interest in modern languages awakened—French holds the first place—Its use in correspondence and in official documents—The French of Henry VIII., his courtiers, and the ladies—Of Anne Boleyn and the other Queens—Of the royal family, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth—French tutors—Bernard André—French Grammars—Alexander Barclay's Introductory—Practice and Theory—Pierre Valence, tutor to the Earl of Lincoln—His Introductions in French—Fragment of a Grammar at Lambeth—French Humanists as Language masters—Bourbon and Denisot—England and the Pléiade.

[CHAPTER II]

French Tutors at Court—Giles Duwes—John Palsgrave—Jean Bellemain

86

French tutors at Court—John Palsgrave and Giles Duwes—Palsgrave's Esclarcissement—The pronunciation of French—His second and third books—The vocabulary—The Introductorie of Duwes—His Dialogues—The methods of the two teachers—Dates of composition and editions—Attitude of the two teachers to each other—Duwes on English teachers of French—Palsgrave's claims—Palsgrave's acquaintance with French literature—Incidents in Duwes's career in England—His royal pupils—Palsgrave's teaching career—Mary Tudor his pupil—The Duke of Richmond, Gregory Cromwell, etc.—Palsgrave in the North, at Oxford, and in London—Jean Bellemain, tutor to Edward VI.—The King's French exercises—Intercourse with Calvin—Bellemain on French orthography—French tutor to Elizabeth—Her translations from the French—A. R. Chevallier.

[CHAPTER III]

The Influence of Religious Refugees on the Teaching of French in England—Openings for them as Teachers—Demand for Text-Books—French Schools in England and Scotland

114

Effects of the persecution of the Protestants on the teaching of French in England—Protestant refugees—Registers and returns of aliens—French churches in London—Reception and treatment of foreigners—Incivility of the common people—Courtesy of the gentry—Refugees received into English families—French in polite education—French tutors and text-books—Converse with foreigners—Shakespeare's French—Professional schoolmasters—No opening in the grammar schools—French schools—Du Ploich's school—His Treatise in French and English and method of teaching—His works in manuscript—Claude Holyband—His French Schoolemaister and French Littleton—His French school—Holyband as private tutor—His method of teaching—Schools in connection with the French churches—Schools at Canterbury and elsewhere—Saravia's school at Southampton—Joshua Sylvester—Place of French in the public schools of Scotland—In the parish and private schools—No French grammars produced in Scotland.

[CHAPTER IV]

Huguenot Teachers of French—Other Classes of French Teachers—Rivalries in the Profession—The "Dutch" and English Teachers

155

Importance of the Huguenot teachers in London—St. Paul's Churchyard the centre of the profession—The group of Normans—Robert Fontaine—Jacques Bellot—His French and English grammars, and Jardin de Vertu—The French Methode—G. de La Mothe—His French Alphabet and method of teaching—French teachers from the Netherlands—Roman Catholic schoolmasters—Objections raised against French teachers—The right of the English to teach French—John Eliote—His attack on French teachers—His love of Rabelais and debt to French literature—His 'merrie vaine'—The Ortho-Epia Gallica and his other works.

[CHAPTER V]

Methods of Teaching French—Latin and French—French and English Dictionaries—Study of French Literature

179

Usual methods of learning French—Reading and translation—Pronunciation—Rules of grammar—Importance of 'practice'—Latin and French text-books—Contrast of methods—Grammar and Practice—Books in French and English—French by translation—French dictionaries—Holyband's Dictionaries—Dictionary printed by Harrison—A place given to French in some Latin dictionaries—Veron—Baret—John Higgins—French-Latin dictionaries—Cotgrave's great French-English Dictionary—Sherwood's English-French Dictionary—Howell's editions of Cotgrave—The reading of French literature—Attitude of French teachers—Favourite authors—Histories and Memoirs of military life for soldiers and statesmen.

[CHAPTER VI]

French at the Universities

198

Latin the language of the Universities—Retention of the use of French formulae—Modern languages read—French a relaxation from 'severer studies'—French tutors and French grammars—Morlet's Janitrix—French grammars written in Latin—Antonio de Corro—John Sanford—Wye Saltonstall—Henry Leighton—French grammarians and teachers at Oxford—Robert Farrear—Pierre Bense—French teachers at Cambridge—Gabriel du Grès at Cambridge and Oxford—On the teaching of French—French at the Universities at the time of the Restoration—The French of the Universities and of the fashionable world—French at the Inns of Court—One-sidedness of the University curriculum—Steps taken to supplement it.

[CHAPTER VII]

The Study of French by English Travellers Abroad

211

Travel in France and on the Continent—In the suite of ambassadors—Children in France—Course of studies—Girls in France—Objections to children being sent to France—France and Italy—Protests against travel—Prejudices against travel—Preference for France—Necessity of the French language—The travelling tutor—The age for travel—Literati as travelling tutors—Travel without a governor—Books on travel—'Methods' of travel—The study of French—Dallington and Moryson—Study of French before travel—French 'by rote'—Language masters for travellers—French grammars for travellers—Charles Maupas of Blois and his son—Antoine Oudin—Other grammars—Père Chiflet—The 'exercises'—Travellers at the Universities—At the Protestant Academies—Geneva—Isaac Casaubon—The 'idle traveller'—The 'beau'—Affectations of newly returned travellers—Commendation and censure of travel.

[CHAPTER VIII]

The Study of French among Merchants and Soldiers

239

Merchants and the study of French—Text-books for merchants—Relations with the Netherlands—The 'book from Anvers'—Barlement's book of dialogues—Meurier's manuals for teaching French to the English in Antwerp—The study of French in the Netherlands—French for soldiers—The Verneys—John Wodroeph—The difficulty of the French language—Necessity of rules as well as practice—The Marrow of the French Tongue.

PART III

STUART TIMES

[CHAPTER I]

French at the Courts of James I. and Charles I.—French studied by the Ladies—French Players in London—English generally ignored by Foreigners

259

The French language in England in the time of the early Stuarts—In the royal family—French tutors—John Florio—Guy Le Moyne—Massonet—Sir Robert Le Grys—French among the ladies—Erondelle's French Garden for English ladies—His dialogues—His career as a teacher—His earlier works—The French Queen of England—French plays in London—The English language neglected by foreigners—English literature ignored in France—English players abroad—The study of English—English grammars for foreigners in England—French teachers and merchants further the study of English—Provision for teaching English in the Netherlands and in France.

[CHAPTER II]

French Grammars—Books for Teaching Latin and French—French in Private Institutions

281

Robert Sherwood, teacher of French and English—His school and French Tutour—William Colson, another English teacher—His 'method' and writings—Maupas's French grammar in England—William Aufeild—How to study French—The Flower de Luce—Laur du Terme on the teaching of French—Paul Cogneau's French grammar—His method—Continued use of the sixteenth-century French grammars—Latin and French—Latin school-books adapted to teaching French—Books for teaching Latin and French together—The Janua of Comenius—Wye Saltonstall—De Grave—French in private institutions—The Museum Minervae—Gerbier's Academy—French in schools for ladies.

[CHAPTER III]

The "Little Blois" in London

301

The Blois group of French teachers—Claude Mauger and his French grammar—Its popularity and development—Mauger's Letters—Other writings—Life in London—Teaches English—Mauger's method of teaching—Mauger at Paris—The demand for his grammar abroad—Paul Festeau—His French and English grammars—Editions and contents—Pierre Lainé—His French grammar—Encouragement of the study of French literature.

[CHAPTER IV]

The French Teaching Profession and Methods of studying the Language

319

Vogue of French romances in England—Dorothy Osborne—Pepys on French literature—His French books—French text-books and the précieux spirit—William Herbert—His criticism of the French teaching profession—Rivalry among teachers—Need for protection—Herbert's later works—His early career in England—Quarrels with a minister of the French church—English gentry at the French church—Pepys a regular attender—French teachers encourage the practice—The method of 'grammar and rote'—French 'by rote'—Examples of how French was studied—Latin by grammar—Calls for reform—The case against grammar—French taught on the 'right method'—Attempts to teach Latin on the same lines as French—Contrast between the learning of Latin in England 'by grammar' and of French in France 'by rote.'

[CHAPTER V]

The Tour in France

341

The Protestant schools and Academies—A group of English students at Saumur—Travellers at the French Universities—A method of travel—Attitude of the French teachers to the tour in France—Guide books—Routes followed—Favourite resorts for study—Auberges and pensions—Language masters in France—Grammars for travellers—Howell's instructions for travellers—Suitable books for students—The 'Grand' and 'Petit' Tour in France—Paris—Inexperienced young travellers—Sir John Reresby in France.

[CHAPTER VI]

Gallomania after the Restoration

361

Gallomania in England after the Restoration—The royal family in France—Their knowledge of the language—English courtiers and gentry in France—Men of letters in France—French and the French at the English court after the Restoration—French 'salons' in London—French valets, cooks, dancing masters, tailors—The French language—French among the ladies—The 'Frenchified' lady—The 'beaux' or English 'monsieurs'—French influence at the theatre—Popularity of French actors in London.

[CHAPTER VII]

The Teaching of French and its Popularity after the Restoration

381

French grammars after the Restoration—Pierre de Lainé, tutor to the children of the Duke of York—The Princely Way to the French Tongue—Guy Miège—His Dictionaries—His French Grammars—His method of teaching—Rote and grammar—Miège's other works—Other French Grammars—Pierre Berault—The universality of French—Supremacy over Latin in the world of fashion and diplomacy—Position of French in the educational world—The classics read in French—'All learning now in French'—French recognized by writers on education—Projects for reformed schools—Numerous French schools in and about London—Villiers' school at Nottingham—Academies for ladies—Academies for training gentlemen in the necessary social accomplishments and for business—Effects of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

APPENDICES

[I]

Chronological List of Manuals and Grammars for Teaching French to the English

403

[II]

Bibliography, arranged Alphabetically, of Manuals for Teaching the French Language to the English, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the End of the Stuart Period

410

[INDEX]

429

PART I

INTRODUCTORY

CHAPTER I

THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES

The first important grammar of the French language was printed in England and written by an Englishman. This enterprising student was John Palsgrave, "natyf de Londres et gradué de Paris," whose work, entitled L'Esclarcissement de la langue francoyse, was published in 1530. It is an enormous quarto of over a thousand pages, full of elaborate, detailed and often obscure rules, written in English in spite of the French title. It was no doubt the solid value and exhaustiveness of Palsgrave's work which won for it the reputation of being the earliest grammar of the French language.[1] Yet Palsgrave himself informs us that such was not the case, though he claims to be the first to lay down 'absolute' rules for the language.

The kings of England, he declares, have never ceased to encourage "suche clerkes as were in theyr tymes, to prove and essay what they by theyr dylygence in this matter myght do." "This like charge," he continues, "have dyvers others had afore my dayes ... many sondrie clerkes have for their tyme taken theyr penne in hande.... Some thyng have they in writing lefte behynde them concerning into this mater, for the ease and furtheraunce as well of suche as shilde in lyke charge after them succede, as of them whiche from tyme to tyme in that tong were to be instructed ... takyng light and erudition of theyr studious labours whiche in this matter before me have taken paynes to write.... I dyd my effectuall devoire to ensertche out suche bokes as had by others of this mater before my tyme ben compyled, of which undouted, after enquery and ensertche made for them dyvers came into my handes as well suche whose authors be yet amongst us lyveng, as suche whiche were of this mater by other sondrie persons longe afore my dayes composed."

The living predecessors to whom Palsgrave refers—authors of short works of small philological value, but of great interest to-day as evidence of the wide use of the French language in England—were likewise acquainted with earlier works on the subject. Giles Duwes, tutor in French to Henry VIII. and other members of the royal family, frequently invokes the authority of the 'olde grammar.' The poet Alexander Barclay, in his French Grammar of 1521, informs us that "the said treatyse hath ben attempted of dyvers men before my dayes," and that he had "sene the draughtes of others" made before his time; moreover, in times past, the French language "hath ben so moche set by in England that who hath ben ignorant in the same language hath not ben reputed to be of gentyll blode. In so moche that, as the cronycles of englande recorde, in all the gramer scoles throughout englande small scolars expounded theyr construccyons bothe in Frenche and Englysshe."

Thus the French grammarians in England in the early sixteenth century were acquainted with, and to some extent indebted to, a series of mediaeval treatises on the French language,—a type of work which, even at the time they wrote, was unknown on the Continent.[2] That England, before other countries, took on herself the study of the French language, was the result of events which followed the Conquest. From that time French had taken its place by the side of English as a vernacular. It was the language of the upper classes and landed gentry, the cultivated and educated; English was used by the masses, while all who read and wrote knew Latin, the language of clerks and scholars. For nearly three centuries after the Conquest almost all writings of any literary value produced in England were in French, though the bulk of composition was in Latin; English never ceased to be written, but was used in minor works for the most part.

It is not surprising, therefore, to find that from an early date Latin was at times construed or translated into French[3] as well as English in the grammar schools, both languages serving as vernaculars. There are still extant examples of this custom,[4] dating from the twelfth century; for instance, a version of the psalter, in which the French words are placed above the Latin without any regard to the order of the French sentence.[5] Others are found in some of the first vocabularies written for the purpose of teaching Latin,[6] which consist of lists of words grouped round subjects and arranged, as a rule, in sentence form. Two of these works seem to have been particularly well known, judging from the number of manuscripts still in existence—those of the English scholars, Alexander Neckam (1157-1217) and John de Garlande, both of whom were indebted to France for most of their learning. Neckam, who in 1180 had attained celebrity as a Professor of the University of Paris, was the author of a Latin Vocabulary—De Utensilibus—which was glossed in Anglo-French.[7] In this he enumerates the various parts of a house and the occupations and callings of men, and gives scenes from feudal and agricultural life. The Dictionarius (c. 1220) of John de Garlande, a student of Oxford and Paris, and one of the first professors of Toulouse University, deals roughly with the same topics.[8] It is glossed in both French and English—the sign of a later period—as was also a Latin vocabulary or nominale of the names of plants,[9] dating from a little later in the same century, though probably existing in earlier manuscripts.

At the universities a decided preference for French was shown in the rare occasions on which the use of a vernacular was allowed. The speaking of French was encouraged in some of the colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge, chiefly those belonging to the second set of foundations.[10] The scholars and fellows of Oriel could use either Latin or French in their familiar conversation and at meals. Similar injunctions were in force at Exeter and Queen's. Among the Cambridge colleges[11] the statutes of Peterhouse allow French to be used for "just and reasonable cause"; at King's it was permitted on occasion, and at Clare Hall French was countenanced only if foreigners were present as visitors. At Pembroke, founded by a Frenchwoman, Mary de Valence, special favour was shown to Frenchmen in the election of Fellows, provided that their total number did not exceed a quarter of the whole body.[12] The cosmopolitanism of the mediaeval centres of learning encouraged a number of such French students to come to England. In 1259, for instance, owing to the disturbed state of the University of Paris, Henry III. invited the Paris students to come to England and take up their abode wheresoever they pleased;[13] no doubt those who accepted his invitation settled at one or other of the two English universities. We also find in the Treaty of Bretigny (1360) a clause to the effect that the subjects of the French and English kings should henceforth be free to resume their intercourse and to enjoy mutually the privileges of the universities of the two countries, "comme ils povoient faire avant ces presentes guerres et comme ils font a present."[14] On the other hand, the English frequented the French universities in large numbers; at Paris in the thirteenth century they formed one of the four nations which composed the University.[15] The authors of the early Latin vocabularies, Alexander Neckam and John de Garlande, were both connected with the University of Paris, while most of the other English scholars of the period were indebted for much of their learning to the same great centre. Many, no doubt, could have written with Garlande:

Anglia cui mater fuerat, cui Gallia nutrix
Matri nutricem praefero mente meam.[16]

In the thirteenth century French was still widely used in England. The fact that the fusion between conquerors and conquered was then complete,[17] and that at the same time French was very popular on the Continent undoubtedly helped to make its position in England stronger. It was then that the Italian Brunetto Latini wrote his Livres dou Tresor (1265), in French rather than in his native tongue, because French was "plus delitable et plus commune à toutes gens." During the same century French came to be used in correspondence on both sides of the Channel.[18] Little by little it was recognized as the most convenient medium for official uses, and the language most generally known in these sections of society which had to administer justice.[19] In the second half of the thirteenth century Robert of Gloucester complained that there was no land "that holdeth not to its kindly speech save Englonde only," admitting at the same time, however, that ignorance of French was a serious disadvantage. An idea of the extent to which the language was current in England may be gathered from the fact that in 1301 Edward I. caused letters from the Pope to be translated into French so that they might be understood by the whole army,[20] and in the previous year the author of the Miroir des Justices wrote in French as being the language "le plus entendable de la comun people." French, indeed, appears to have been used among all classes, save the very poorest;[21] some of the French literature of the time was addressed more particularly to the middle classes.[22]

Nevertheless, as the thirteenth century advanced, French began to hold its own with some difficulty. While it was in the unusual position of a vernacular gradually losing its power as such, there appeared the earliest extant treatise on the language. This, and those that followed it, were to some extent lessons in the vernacular; yet not entirely, as may be judged from the fact that they are set forth and explained in Latin, the language of all scholarship. The first work on the French language, dating from not later than the middle of the thirteenth century, is in the form of a short Latin treatise on French conjugations,[23] in which a comparison of the French with the Latin tenses is instituted.[24] As it appeared at a time when French was becoming the literary language of the law, and was being used freely in correspondence, it may have been intended mainly for the use of clerks. A treatise of considerably more importance composed towards the end of the century, appears to have had the same purpose. That he did not intend it exclusively for clerks, however, the author showed by adding rules for pronunciation, syntax and even morphology as well as for orthography. Like most of the early grammatical writings on the French language, this Orthographia Gallica is in Latin. The obscurity of many of its rules, however, called forth commentaries in French which appeared during the fourteenth century, and exceed the size of the original work. The Orthographia was a very popular work, as the number of manuscripts extant and the French commentary prove. The different copies vary considerably, and there is a striking increase in the number of rules given; from being about thirty in the earliest manuscript, they number about a hundred in the latest.[25]

It opens with a rule that when the first or middle syllable of a French word contains a short e, i must be placed before the e, as in bien, rien, etc.—a curious, fumbling attempt to explain the development of Latin free short e before nasals and oral consonants into ie. On the other hand, continues the author, e acute need not be preceded by i, as tenez. It is not surprising that these early writers, in spite of much patient observation, should almost always have failed to grasp fundamental laws, and group a series of corresponding facts into the form of a general rule. We continually find rules drawn up for a few isolated examples, with no general application. The most striking feature in the treatment of French orthography in this work is the continual reference to Latin roots, and the clear statement of the principle that, wherever possible, the spelling of French words should be based on that of Latin.

The Orthographia does not by any means limit its observations to spelling; there are also rules for pronunciation, a subject which in later times naturally held a very important place in French grammars written for the use of Englishmen, while orthography became one of the chief concerns of French grammarians. That orthography received so much attention at this early period in this country, is explained by the fact that these manuals were partly intended for "clerks," who would frequently have to write in French. As to the pronunciation, we find, amongst others, the familiar rule that when a French word ending in a consonant comes before another word beginning with a consonant, the first consonant is not pronounced. An s occurring after a vowel and before an m, writes the author, in another rule, is not pronounced, as in mandasmes, and l coming after a, e, or o, and followed by a consonant is pronounced like u, as in m'almi, loialment, and the like. A list of synonyms[26] is also given, which throws some light on the English pronunciation of French at this period, and there are also a few hints for the translation of both Latin and English into French.

Nor are syntax and morphology neglected; rules concerning these are scattered among those on orthography and pronunciation, with the lack of orderly arrangement characteristic of the whole work. Thus we are told to use me in the accusative case, and moy in all other cases; that we should form the plural of verbs ending in t in the singular by adding z, as il amet, il list become vous amez, vous lisez; that when we ask any one for something, we may say vous pri without je, but that, when we do this, we should write pri with a y, as pry, and so on.

The claim of the Orthographia Gallica to be the first extant work on French orthography, has been disputed by another treatise, also written in Latin, and known as the Tractatus Orthographiae. More methodically arranged than the Orthographia, this work deals more particularly with pronunciation and orthography.[27] It opens with a short introduction announcing that here are the means for the youth of the time to make their way in the world speedily and learn French pronunciation and orthography. Each letter of the alphabet is first treated in turn,[28] and then come a few more general observations. Like the author of the Orthographia, the writer of the Tractatus would have the spelling of French words based on that of Latin whenever possible. He claims that his own French is "secundum dulce Gallicum" and "secundum usum et modum modernorum tam partibus transmarinis quam cismarinis." Though he apparently places the French of England and the French of France on the same footing, it is noteworthy that he carefully distinguishes between the two.

The Tractatus Orthographiae bears a striking resemblance to another work of like nature, which is better known—the Tractatus Orthographiae of Canon M. T. Coyfurelly, doctor in Law of Orleans[29]—and for some time it was thought to be merely a rehandling of Coyfurelly's treatise which did not appear till somewhere about the end of the fourteenth century, if not later. But Coyfurelly admits that his work was based on the labours of one 'T. H. Parisii Studentis,' and there appears, on examination,[30] to be no doubt as to the priority of the anonymous Tractatus described above, which, on the contrary, is evidently the treatise rehandled by Coyfurelly, and the work of 'T. H. Student of Paris.' Besides being the original which Coyfurelly recast in his Tractatus, it also appears that T. H. may reasonably dispute with the author of the Orthographia Gallica, the honour of being the first in the field. His work shows no advance on the rules given for pronunciation in the Orthographia, while the orthography is of a decidedly older stamp.

At about the same time as these two treatises on orthography, probably a few years earlier, there was composed a work of similar purpose but very different character. It is of particular interest, and shows that, towards the end of the thirteenth century, French was beginning to be treated as a foreign language; the French is accompanied by a partial English gloss, and the author states that "touz dis troverez-vous primes le Frauncois et pus le Engleys suaunt." The author, Gautier or Walter de Bibbesworth,[31] was an Englishman, and appears to have mixed with the best society of the day. He was a friend of the celebrated statesman of the reign of Edward I., Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. The only work by which his name is known to-day, in addition to the treatise in question, is a short piece of Anglo-Norman verse,[32] written on the occasion of the expedition of Edward I. to the Holy Land in 1270, shortly before he came to the throne. We gather from letters of protection granted him in that year that Bibbesworth himself took part in this venture. In this poem he is pictured discussing the Crusade with Lacy, and trying to persuade his friend to take part in it. The name of Bibbesworth also occurs several times[33] in official documents of no special interest, and as late as 1302 a writ of Privy Seal was addressed to the Chancellor suing for a pardon under the Great Seal to W. de Bibbesworth, in consideration of his good services rendered in Scotland, for a breach of the park of Robert de Seales at Ravenhall, and of the king's prison at Colchester.[34]

Bibbesworth, however, interests us less as a crusader or a disturber of public order, than as the author of a treatise for teaching the French language, entitled Le Treytyz qe mounsire Gauter de Bibelesworthe fist a ma dame Dyonisie de Mounchensy[35] pur aprise de langwage. The large number of manuscripts still in existence[36] suggest that it was a popular text-book among the children of the higher classes of society. The treatise reproduces, as might be expected, the chief characteristics of the vocabularies for teaching Latin. In addition to giving a collection of words and phrases arranged in the form of a narrative, it also incidentally aims at imparting some slight grammatical information. Its contents are of a very practical character, and deal exclusively with the occurrences and occupations of daily life. Beginning with the new-born child, it tells in French verses how it is to be nursed and fed. Rime was no doubt introduced to aid the memory, as the pupil would, in all probability, have to learn the whole by heart. The French is accompanied by a partial interlinear English gloss, giving the equivalent of the more difficult French words. This may, perhaps, be taken as an indication of the extent to which French was regarded as a foreign language.[37]

After describing the life of the child during its earliest infancy, Bibbesworth goes on to tell how it is to be taught French as soon as it can speak, "that it may be better learned in speach and held up to scorn by none":

Quaunt le enfes ad tel age
Ke il set entendre langage,
Primes en Fraunceys ly devez dire
Coment soun cors deyt descrivere,
Pur le ordre aver de moun et ma,
Toun et ta, soun et sa,
better lered
Ke en parlole seyt meut apris
scorned
E de nul autre escharnys.

In accordance with this programme the parts of the human body, which almost invariably forms the central theme in this type of manual, are enumerated. Special care is taken to distinguish the genders and cases, to teach the children "Kaunt deivunt dire moun et ma, soun et sa, le et la, moy et jo . . .," and to explain how the meaning of words of similar sound often depends on their gender:

lippe and an hare
Vous avet la levere et le levere,
a pound a book
Et la livere et le livere.
La levere si enclost les dens;
Le levere en boys se tent dedens;
La livere sert en marchaundye;
Le livere nous aprent clergye.

Throughout Bibbesworth seizes every opportunity to point out distinctions of gender of this kind, regardless, it appears, of the difference between the definite and indefinite articles. When the pupil can describe his body, the teacher proceeds to give him an account of "all that concerns it both inside and out" ("kaunt ke il apent dedens et deores"), that is of its clothing and food:

Vestet vos draps mes chers enfauns,
Chaucez vos brays, soulers, e gauns;
Mettet le chaperoun, covrez le chef, etc.

—a passage which illustrates the practical nature of the treatise, Bibbesworth's aim being to teach children to know the properties of the things they see ("les propretez des choses ke veyunt").

When the child is clothed, Bibbesworth next feeds him, giving a full account of the meals and the food which is provided, and, by way of variety, at the end of the dinner, he teaches his pupil the names given to groups of different animals, and of the verbs used to describe their various cries. ("Homme parle, cheval hennist," etc.). By this time the child is ready to observe Nature, and to learn the terms of husbandry,[38] and the processes by which his food is produced. From the fields he passes to the woods and the river, where he learns to hunt and to fish, subjects which naturally lead to the introduction of the French names of the seasons, and of the beasts and birds that are supposed to present themselves to his view.

During the whole of this long category the verse form is maintained, and the intention of avoiding a vocabulary pure and simple is manifest. How superior this method was to the more modern lists of words separated from the context is also evident. Besides giving a description of all the objects with which the child comes in contact, and of all the actions he has to perform, as well as examples for the distinctions of genders and of moy and jo—difficulties for which he makes no attempts to draw up rules—Bibbesworth claims for his work that it provides gentlemen with adequate instruction for conversational purposes ("tot le ordre en parler e respoundre ke checun gentyshomme covent saver"). And as he did not wish to neglect any of the items of daily life, he finally gives a description of the building of a house and various domestic arrangements, ending with a description of an old English feast with its familiar dish, the boar's head:

Au primer fust apporté
a boris heued
La teste de un sengler tot armé,
the snout wit baneres of flurs
E au groyn le colere en banere;
E pus veneysoun, ou la fourmenté;
Assez par my la mesoun
tahen of gres tyme
De treste du fermeyson.
Pus avyent diversetez en rost,
Eit checun autre de cost,
Cranes, pokokes, swannes
Grues, pounes, e cygnes,
Wilde ges, gryses (porceaus), hennes,
Owes, rosées, porceus, gelyns;
Au tercez cours avient conyns en gravé,
Et viaunde de Cypre enfundré,
De maces, e quibibes, e clous de orré,
Vyn blanc e vermayl a graunt plenté.
wodekok
Pus avoyunt fesauns, assez, et perdriz,
Feldefares larkes
Grives, alowes, e pluviers ben rostez;
E braoun, e crispes, e fritune;
Ke soucre roset poudra la temprune.
Apres manger avyunt a graunt plenté
Blaunche poudre, ou la grosse dragé,
Et d'autre nobleie a fusoun,
Ensi vous fynys ceo sermoun;
Kar de fraunceis i ad assez,
De meynte manere dyversetez,
Dount le vous fynys, seynurs, ataunt
A filz Dieu vous comaund.
Ici finest la doctrine monsire Gauter De Byblesworde.

As time went on a conscious effort was made to retain the use of the French language in England. Higden, writing at about the middle of the fourteenth century,[39] informs us that English was then neglected for two reasons: "One is bycause that children than gon to schole lerne to speke first Englysshe and then ben compelled constrewe ther lessons in Frenssh"; "Also gentilmens children ben lerned and taught from theyr yougthe to speke frenssh.[40] And uplandish men will counterfete and likene them self to gentilmen and arn besy to speke frensshe for to be more sette by. Wherefor it is sayd by a common proverbe Jack wold be a gentilmen if he coude speke frensshe."

At the University of Oxford, likewise, the Grammar masters were enjoined to teach the boys to construe in English and in French, "so that the latter language be not forgotten."[41] The same university gave some slight encouragement to the study of French. There were special teachers who, although not enjoying the privileges of those lecturing in the usual academic subjects, were none the less recognised by the University. They had to observe the Statutes, and to promise not to give their lessons at times which would interfere with the ordinary lectures in arts. The French teachers were under the superintendence of the masters of grammar, and had to pay thirteen shillings a year to the Masters in Arts to compensate them for any disadvantage they might suffer from any loss of pupils; if there was only one teacher of French he had to pay the whole amount himself. As for those learning "to write, to compose, and speak French," they had to attend lectures in rhetoric and grammar—the courses most akin to their studies[42]—and to contribute to the maintenance of the lecturers in these subjects, there being no ordinary lectures in French.

In the meantime, more treatises for teaching French appeared; Bibbesworth's book soon found imitators, and early in the new century an anonymous author, clearly an Englishman, made free use of Bibbesworth in a treatise called The Nominale sive Verbale in Gallicis cum expositione ejusdem in Anglicis.[43] This anonymous writer[44] however, thought it necessary to make the interlinear English gloss much fuller than Bibbesworth had done, which shows that French had become more of a foreign language in the interval between the two works. He also placed the English rendering after the French, instead of above it. The later work differs further from the earlier in the order of the subject headings, as well as by the introduction of a few new topics. Enumerating the parts of the body,[45] as Bibbesworth had done, the author proceeds to make his most considerable addition to the subjects introduced by Bibbesworth in describing "la noyse et des faitz que homme naturalment fait":

Homme parle et espire:

Man spekyth & vndyth.

Femme teinge et suspire:

Woman pantyth & syketh.

Homme bale et babeie:

Man dravelith & wlaffyth.

Femme bale et bleseie:

Woman galpyth & wlispyth.

He then describes all the daily actions and occupations of men:

Homme va a la herce:

Man goth at the harewe.

Femme bercelet berce:

Woman childe in cradel rokkith....

Enfant sa lessone reherce:

His lessone recordeth,

and so on for about 350 lines. Other additions are of little importance, and, for the rest, the author treats subjects first introduced by Bibbesworth, though the wording often differs to a certain extent.[46]

When, towards the end of the thirteenth century, French began to be used in correspondence, need for instruction in French epistolary art arose; and early in the fourteenth century guides to letter-writing in French, in the form of epistolaries or collections of model letters, were produced.[47] The letters themselves are given in French, but the accompanying rules and instructions for composing them are in Latin. French and Latin have changed rôles; in earlier times Latin had been explained to school children by means of French. Forms for addressing members of the different grades of society are supplied, from epistles to the king and high state and ecclesiastical dignitaries down to commercial letters for merchants, and familiar ones for private individuals. Women, too, were not forgotten; we find similar examples covering the same range—from the queen and the ladies of the nobility to her more humble subjects. Each letter is almost invariably followed by its answer, likewise in French. Some contain interesting references to the great men or events of the day, but those of a more private nature possess a greater attraction, and throw light on the family life of the age. A letter from a mother to her son at school may be quoted:[48]

Salut avesque ma beniçon, tres chier filz. Sachiez que je desire grandement de savoir bons nouelles de vous et de vostre estat: car vostre pere et moy estions a la faisance de ces lettres en bon poynt le Dieu merci. Et sachiez que je vous envoie par le portour de ces lettres demy marc pur diverses necessaires que vous en avez a faire sans escient de vostre pere. Et vous pri cherement, beau tres doulz filz, que vous laissez tous mals et folyes et ne hantez mye mauvaise compagnie, car si vous le faitez il vous fera grant damage, avant que vous l'aperceiverez. Et je vous aiderai selon mon pooir oultre ce que vostre pere vous donnra. Dieus vous doint sa beniçon, car je vous donne la mienne. . . .

From about the middle of the fourteenth century a feeling of discontent with the prerogative of the French language in England becomes prominent. The loss of the greater part of the French possessions, and the continued state of hostilities with France during the reign of Edward III. brought home forcibly to the English mind the fact that the French were a distinct nation, and French a foreign tongue. This tardy recovery is sufficient proof of the strong resistance which had to be overcome. Chaucer is the greatest representative of the new movement. "Let Frenchmen endite their quaint terms in French," he exclaims, "for it is kindly to their mouths, but let us show our fantaisies in suche words as we learned from our dames' tongues." His contemporary, Gower, was less quick to discern the signs of the times. Of the four volumes of his works, two are in Latin, one in French, and one in English; but the order in which he uses these languages is instructive—first French, then Latin, and lastly English. Some writers made a compromise by employing a mixture of French and English.[49] French, however, continued to hold an important place in prose writings until the middle of the fifteenth century; but such works are of little literary value. The reign of French as the literary language of England, as Chaucer had been quick to discern, was approaching its end.

The same period is marked by a growing disrespect for Anglo-French as compared with the French of France. The French of England, cut off from the living source, had developed apart, and often with more rapidity than the other French dialects on the Continent. What is more, the language brought by the invaders was not a pure form of the Norman dialect; men from various parts of France had joined in William's expedition. The invaders, always called 'French' by their contemporaries, brought in a strong Picard element; and in the twelfth century there was a similar Angevin influence. Moreover, during Norman and Angevin times, craftsmen and others immigrated to England, each bringing with him the dialectal peculiarities of his own province.[50] Thus no regular development of Anglo-French was possible, and it can hardly be regarded as an ordinary dialect, notwithstanding its literary importance.[51] This disparity in the quality of Anglo-French is illustrated in a remarkable way by the literature of the period. Those who had received special educational advantages, or had travelled on the Continent, spoke and wrote French correctly; others used forms which contrasted pitiably with continental French. Moreover, the fourteenth century saw the triumph of the Île de France dialect in France; the other dialects ceased, as a rule, to be used in literature,[52] and this change was not without effect on Anglo-French, which shared their degradation. Chaucer lets us know the poor opinion he had of the French of England; his Prioress speaks French "full fayre and fetisly," but

After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe,
For French of Paris was to her unknowe.

William Langland admits that he knew "no frenche in feith, but of the ferthest ende of Norfolke."[53] As early as the thirteenth century English writers had felt bound to apologize as Englishmen for their French. Nor were their excuses superfluous in many cases; William of Wadington, the author of the Manuel des Pechiez, for example, wrote:[54]

De le françois ne del rimer
Ne me doit nuls hom blamer,
Car en Engleterre fu né
Et nurri lenz et ordiné.

Such apologies became all the more necessary as time went on. Even Gower, whose French was comparatively pure,[55] owing no doubt to travel in France in early life, deemed it advisable to explain that he wrote in French for "tout le monde en general," and to ask pardon if he has not "de François la faconde":

Jeo suis Englois si quier par tiele voie
Estre excusé.

At about the same time the anonymous author of the Testament of Love finds fault with the English for their persistence in writing in bad French, "of which speech the Frenchmen have as good a fantasy as we have in hearing of Frenchmen's English."[56]

The notoriety of the French of Englishmen reached France. Indeed this was a time when the English were more generally known in France than they were to be for several hundreds of years afterwards—until the eighteenth century. Englishmen filled positions in their possessions in France, and during the long wars between the two countries in the reign of Edward III., many of the English nobility resided in that country with their families. Montaigne refers to traces of the English in Guyenne, which still remained in the sixteenth century: "Il est une nation," he writes in one of his Essays, "a laquelle ceux de mon quartier ont eu autrefois si privée accointance qu'il reste encore en ma maison aucune trace de leur ancien cousinage."[57] The opinions formed by the French of the English were naturally anything but flattering. We find them expressed in songs of the time.[58] But the recriminations were mutual, and the English had already hit upon the epithet which for centuries they applied to Frenchmen, and most other foreigners indiscriminately:

Franche dogue dit un Anglois.
Vous ne faites que boire vin,
Si faisons bien dist le François,
Mais vous buvez le lunnequin. (bière.)[59]

Even in the Roman de Renart we come across traces of familiarity with English ways, and also of the English language.[60]

It is not surprising, then, that Anglo-French was a subject of remark in France, especially when we remember that already in the thirteenth century the provincial accents of the different parts of France herself had been the object of some considerable amount of raillery.[61] The English, says Froissart, a good judge, for he spent many years in England, "disoient bien que le françois que ils avoient apris chies eulx d'enfance n'estoit pas de telle nature et condition que celluy de France estoit."[62] And this 'condition' was soon recognized as a plentiful store for facetious remarks and parodies of all kinds. In the Roman de Jehan et Blonde, the young Frenchman's rival, the Duke of Gloucester, is made to appear ridiculous by speaking bad French; and one of the tricks played by Renart on Ysengrin, in the Roman de Renart, is to pretend he is an Englishman:[63]

Ez vos Renart qui le salue:
"Godehelpe," fait il, "bel Sire!
Non saver point ton reson dire."

And Ysengrin answers:

Et dex saut vos, bau dous amis!
Dont estes vos? de quel pais?
Vous n'estes mie nés de France,
Ne de la nostre connoissance.

A fabliau of the fourteenth century[64] pictures the dilemma of two Englishmen trying to make their French understood in France; one of them is ill and would have some lamb:

Si tu avez un anel cras
Mi porra bien mengier ce croi.

His friend sets out to try to get the 'anel' or 'lamb'; but no one understands him, and he becomes the laughing-stock of the villagers. At last some one gives him a 'small donkey' instead of the desired 'agnel,' and out of this he makes a dish for the invalid who finds the bones rather large. In the face of a reputation such as this it is no wonder that the English found additional encouragement to abandon the foreign language and cultivate their own tongue.

English was also beginning to make its way into official documents.[65] In 1362 the King's Speech at the opening of Parliament was pronounced in English, and in the following year it was directed that all pleas in the courts of justice should be pleaded and judged in English, because French was "trope desconue en ledit realme." Despite that, the act was very tardily obeyed, and English progressed but slowly, French continuing to be written long after it ceased to be spoken in the Law Courts. There were a few public documents issued in English at the end of the century, but the Acts and Records of Parliament continued to be written in French for many years subsequently. English first made its way into the operative parts of the Statutes, and till 1503 the formal parts were still written in French and Latin. Protests were made to Henry VIII. against the continued use of French, "as thereby ys testyfied our subjectyon to the Normannys"; yet it was not before the eighteenth century that English was exclusively used in the Law Courts, and for many years French, in its corrupt form, remained the literary language of the English law. Till the seventeenth century works on jurisprudence and reports on cases were mainly written in French. Les Cases de Gray's Inn shows French in accounts of discussions on difficult legal cases as late as 1680.[66] Sir John Fortescue (1394?-1476), Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, in his De Laudibus Legum Angliae, suggests that this Law French is more correct at bottom than ordinary spoken French, which, he contends, is much "altered by common use, whereas Law French is more often writ than spoken." In later times no such illusions prevailed. Swift thus estimates the value of the three languages of the English Law:[67]

Then from the bar harangues the bench,
In English vile, and viler French,
And Latin vilest of the three.

At about the same time as Swift wrote, the 'frenchified' Lady, then in fashion, who prided herself on her knowledge of the "language à la mode" is described as being able to "keep the field against a whole army of Lawyers, and that in their own language, French gibberish."[68] And long after French ceased to be used in the Law many law terms and legal and official phrases remained, and are still in use to-day.[69] Anglo-French also lingered in some of the religious houses after it had fallen into discredit elsewhere, and continued to do so in some cases till the time of their dissolution. The rules and accounts of the nunneries were more often in French than not.[70] And John ap Rhys, visitor of monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII., wrote to Cromwell regarding the monastery of Laycock in Wiltshire, that he had observed one thing "worthy th'advertisement; the ladies have their Rule, th'institutes of their Religion and the ceremonies of the same written in the Frenche tongue, which they understand well and are very perfyt in the same, albeit that it varieth from vulgar Frenche that is now used, and is moche like the Frenche that the common Lawe is written in."[71]

During this same period English began to be used occasionally in correspondence; but here again its progress was slow. Some idea of the extent to which French was utilized for that purpose may be gathered from the fact that three extant letters of William de Wykeham, addressed to Englishmen, are all in that tongue. Not till the second and third decades of the fifteenth century were English and French employed in correspondence to an almost equal extent, and during the following years, especially in the reign of Henry VI., English gradually became predominant.[72] French remained in use longer in correspondence of a public and official nature, but became more and more restricted to foreign diplomacy.

Towards the middle of the fourteenth century, at the beginning of the long wars with France, French lost ground in England in yet another direction. Edward III. is said to have found it necessary to proclaim that all lords, barons, knights, burgesses, should see that their children learn French for political and military reasons;[73] and when Trevisa translated Higden's Polychronicon, he wrote in correction of the earlier chronicler's description of the teaching of French in the grammar schools of England:[74] "This maner was moche used before the grete deth (1349). But syth it is somdele chaunged. Now (i.e. 1387) they leave all Frensch in scholes, and use all construction in Englisch. Wherin they have advantage on way that they lerne the soner ther gramer. And in another disadvantage. For nowe they lerne no Frenssh ne can none, whiche is hurte for them that shall passe the see," and thus children of the grammar schools know "no more French than knows their lefte heele."

Thus the custom of translating Latin into French passed out of use early in the second half of the fourteenth century. No doubt there had been signs of the approaching change in the preceding period, and it is of interest here to notice that while Neckham's Latin vocabulary, which dates from the second half of the twelfth century, is glossed in French alone, that of Garlande, which belongs approximately to the third decade of the following century, is accompanied by translations in both French and English. In the universities, however, where French had been slower in gaining a foothold, it remained longer; in the fifteenth century teachers of French were still allowed to lecture there as they had done previously, but it is to be noticed that in all the colleges founded after the Black Death (1349), from which the change in the grammar schools is dated, the regulations encouraging the speaking of French in Hall are absent. The change appears also to have affected the higher classes, who did not usually frequent the grammar schools and universities, but depended on more private methods of instruction. Trevisa here again adds a correction to the earlier chronicle, and informs us that "gentylmen haveth now myche lefte for to teach their children Frensch."

We thus witness the gradual disappearance of the effects of the Norman Conquest in the history of the use of the French language in England. The Conquest had made Norman-French the language of the Court, and to some extent, of the Church; it had brought with it a French literature which nearly smothered the national literature and replaced it temporarily; it had led to the system of translating Latin into French as well as into English in the schools. In the later fourteenth century French was no longer the chief language of the Court, and the king spoke English and was addressed in the same tongue. In the Church the employment of French had been restricted and transitory, though, as has been mentioned, it lingered in some of the monasteries until the sixteenth century; yet Latin never found in it a serious rival in this sphere, and the ecclesiastical department of the law never followed the civil in the adoption of the use of French. How French lost ground in the other spheres has already been traced: in all these cases its employment may be regarded as a direct result of the Conquest.

This great event had also indirect results. French became the official language of England, and the favourite medium of correspondence in the thirteenth century, when the fusion between the two races was complete. But it is highly improbable that French would have spread in these directions if the Conquest had not in the first place made French the vernacular of a considerable portion of Englishmen, and that the most influential. With its use in official documents and in correspondence, may be classed the slight encouragement French received at Oxford. In all these spheres it remained longer than it had done where its status had been a more direct result of the Conquest.

Meanwhile the desire to cultivate and imitate the French of France had been growing stronger and stronger; and when, towards the end of the fourteenth century, the older influences were getting feebler, and in some cases had passed away, the influence of the continental French, especially the French of Paris, now supreme over the other dialects, became more and more marked. And it is this language which henceforth Englishmen strove to learn, gradually relinquishing the corrupt idiom with which for so long their name had been associated.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This was the opinion of Ames: "This seems to be the first grammar of the French language in our own country, if not in Europe." Dibdin, Herbert Ames's Typographical Antiquities, 1819, iii. p. 365.

[2] The grammar of Jacques Sylvius or Dubois appeared in 1531, a year after Palsgrave's. No attempt at a theoretical treatment of the French language appeared in France in the Middle Ages. There are, however, two Provençal ones extant. (F. Brunot, "Le Français à l'étranger," in L. Petit de Julleville's Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française, ii. p. 528.)

[3] One of the chief effects of the Conquest in the schools is said to have been the substitution of Norman for English schoolmasters (Leach, Schools of Mediaeval England, 1915, p. 103).

[4] The majority of early Latin vocabularies extant, however, are accompanied by English translations (cp. T. Wright, Volume of Vocabularies, 2 vols., 1857), as was also the comparatively well-known Promptorium Parvulorum (c. 1440), Camden Soc., 1865.

[5] The text is given in L. E. Menger's Anglo-Norman Dialect, Columbia University Press, 1904, p. 14. The psalms, together with Cato, Ovid, or possibly Virgil, formed the usual reading material in the Grammar Schools. Cp. Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1895, ii. p. 603.

[6] Adam du Petit Pont (d. 1150) wrote an epistle in Latin, many words of which were glossed in French. But there is no evidence that it was used in England. It was published by E. Scheler in his Trois traités de lexicographie latine du 12^e et 13^e siècles, Leipzig, 1867.

[7] Ed. T. Wright, Volume of Vocabularies, i. 96, and Scheler, op. cit. Both editions are deemed unsatisfactory by Paul Meyer (Romania, xxxvi. 482).

[8] It has been published five times: (1) At Caen by Vincent Correr in 1508 (Romania, ut supra); (2) H. Géraud, in Documents inédits sur l'histoire de France: "Paris sous Philippe le Bel d'après les documents originaux," 1837; (3) Kervyn de Lettenhove, 1851; (4) T. Wright, Volume of Vocabularies, i. pp. 120 sqq.; (5) Scheler, Trois traités de lexicographie latine.

[9] Wright, op. cit. pp. 139-141.

[10] Statutes of the Colleges of Oxford, 3 vols., Oxford and London, 1853; A. Clark, Colleges of Oxford, 1891, p. 140; H. C. Maxwell Lyte, History of the University of Oxford, 1880, pp. 140-151.

[11] Documents relating to the Universities and Colleges of Cambridge, 1852, ii. p. 33; J. Bass Mullinger, The University of Cambridge, 1873; G. Peacock, Observations on the Statutes of the University of Cambridge, 1841, p. 4.

[12] J. Heywood, Early Cambridge University and College Statutes, 1885, ii. p. 182.

[13] C. H. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, Cambridge, 1852, i. p. 40.

[14] Rashdall, op. cit. ii. p. 519 n.

[15] Rashdall, op. cit. i. pp. 319 et seq. Later the English nation was known as the German; it included all students from the north and east of Europe. On the English in the University of Paris see Ch. Thurot, De l'organisation de l'enseignement dans l'Université de Paris, Paris, 1850; and J. E. Sandys, "English Scholars of Paris, and Franciscans of Oxford," in The Cambridge History of English Literature, i., 1908, chap. x. pp. 183 et seq.

[16] Quoted, E. J. B. Rathery, Les Relations sociales et intellectuelles entre la France et l'Angleterre, Paris, 1856, p. 11.

[17] A writer of about 1180 says it was impossible to tell who were Normans and who English ("Dialogus de Scaccario": Stubbs, Select Charters, 4th ed., 1881, p. 168).

[18] "Discours sur l'état des lettres au 13^e siècle," in the Histoire littéraire de la France, xvi. p. 168.

[19] D. Behrens, in H. Paul's Grundiss der germanischen Philologie, Strassbourg, 1901, pp. 953-55; Freeman, Norman Conquest, v. 1876, pp. 528 sqq.; Maitland, "Anglo-French Law Language," in the Cambridge History of English Literature, i. pp. 407 sqq., History of English Law, 1895, pp. 58 sqq., and Collected Papers, 1911, ii. p. 436. At the universities, where Latin was the usual language of correspondence, letters and petitions were often drawn up in French (Oxford Hist. Soc., Collectanea, 1st series, 1885, pp. 8 sqq.).

[20] Bateson, Mediaeval England, 1903, p. 319.

[21] Maitland, Collected Papers, 1911, ii. p. 437.

[22] Such are Bozon's Contes moralisés (c. 1320), ed. P. Meyer, in the Anciens Textes Français, 1889. In his Introduction Meyer lays stress on the widespread use of French in England at this time, and its chance of becoming the national language of England, an eventuality which, he thinks, might have been a benefit to humanity.

[23] MS. at Trinity Col. Cambridge (R. 3. 56).

[24] Paul Meyer calls it the work of a true grammarian (Romania, xxxii. p. 65).

[25] There are four MSS. extant. These have been collated and published by J. Sturzinger in the Altfranzösische Bibliothek, vol. viii., Heilbronn, 1884; cp. Romania, xiv. p. 60. The earliest MS. is in the Record Office, and was published by T. Wright in Haupt and Hoffman's Altdeutsche Blaetter (ii. p. 193). Diez quoted from this edition in his Grammaire des langues romanes, 3rd ed. i. pp. 415, 418 sqq. The three other MSS. are in the Brit. Mus., Camb. Univ. Libr. and Magdalen Col. Oxon., and belong to the three succeeding centuries. Portions of the Magdalen Col. MS. are quoted by A. J. Ellis, in his Early English Pronunciation, pp. 836-839, and by F. Génin, in his preface to the French Government reprint of Palsgrave's Grammar, 1852. It is the British Museum copy, made in the reign of Edward III., which contains the French commentary.

[26] Early English writers on the French tongue were fond of drawing attention to the opportunities for punning afforded by the language.

[27] Edited by Miss M. K. Pope in the Modern Language Review (vol. v., 1910, pt. ii. pp. 188 sqq.), from the Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 17716, ff. 88-91; it also exists at All Souls, Oxford (MS. 182 f. 340), and at Trinity Col. Cambridge (MS. B 14. 39, 40); in the last MS. the introduction of the two preceding ones is lacking (cp. Meyer, Romania, xxxii. p. 59).

[28] For instance, we are told that a is sounded almost like e as in savez vous faire un chauncoun . . .; that the phrases a, en a, i a which mean one and the same thing when they come from the Latin habet, should be written without d; that aura, en array should be written without e in the middle, and sounded without u, as aray, en array, though the English include the e.

[29] Published by Stengel, in the Zeitschrift für neufranzösische Sprache und Literatur, 1879, pp. 16-22.

[30] Miss Pope, ut supra.

[31] His name has provoked some discussion as to its correct form. It is frequently written as Biblesworth, and one MS. gives it the form of Bithesway; the correct form, however, is Bibbesworth, the name of a manor in the parish of Kempton (Herts), of which Walter was the owner (P. Meyer, Romania, xv. p. 312, and xxx. p. 44 n.; W. Aldis Wright, Notes and Queries, 1877, 4th Series, viii. p. 64).

[32] Printed from the MS. in the Bodleian, in Wright and Halliwell's Reliquiae Antiquae, i. p. 134.

[33] Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1247-58, pp. 58, 103, 187. He received exemption from being put on assizes or juries in 1249.

[34] Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1301-1307, p. 39.

[35] She died in 1304; her father was one of the leaders on the king's side at the battle of Lewes (1264).

[36] There are many MSS. in the British Museum; others at Oxford and Cambridge, and one in the Library of Sir Th. Phillips at Cheltenham. The best-known edition of the vocabulary is that of T. Wright, Volume of Vocabularies, i. pp. 142-174, which is the one here quoted, and which reproduces Arundel MS. 220, collated with Sloane MS. 809. P. Meyer has given a critical edition of the first eighty-six lines in his Recueil d'anciens textes—partie française, No. 367 (cp. Romania, xiii. p. 500).

[37] In the vocabularies written in imitation of Bibbesworth at later dates, the English gloss is fuller, and in the latest one complete, as French became more and more a foreign language.

[38] "Pus to le frauncoys com il en court en age de husbonderie, com pur arer, rebiner, waretter, semer, sarcher, syer, faucher, carier, batre, moudre, pestrer, briser," etc.

[39] Polychronicon, lib. 1, cap. 59 (ed. Babington and Lumly, Rolls Publications, 41, 1865-66, vol. ii. pp. 159 sqq.).

[40] Cp. the thirteenth-century romance in which Jehan de Dammartin teaches French to Blonde of Oxford (ed. Le Roux de Lincy, Camden Soc., 1858).

[41] F. Anstey, Monumenta Academica, 1868, p. 438.

[42] Anstey, op. cit., 1868, p. 302.

[43] Published from a MS. in Cambridge University Library (Ee 4, 20), by Skeat, in the Transactions of the Philological Society (1903-1906).

[44] The MS. in which the work is preserved dates from about 1340, but is probably copied from an earlier one.

[45]

"Corps teste et hanapel

Body heuede and heuedepanne

Et peil cresceant sur la peal.

And here growende on the skyn," etc.

[46] How close the resemblance is between the two works may be judged by the following quotations:

Par le gel nous avons glas,
Et de glas vient verglas. (Nominale.)
Pur le gel vous avomus glas,
Et pluvye e gele fount vereglas. (Bibbesworth.)

And it is in words almost identical with those of Bibbesworth that the author describes the difference in the meaning of some words according to their gender:

La levere deit clore les dentz.

The lippe.

Le levere en boys se tient de deynz.

The hare.

La livre sert a marchauntz.

The pounde.

Le livere aprent nous enfauntz.

The boke.

[47] The earliest of these MSS. dates from the second decade of the fourteenth century. These epistolaries are found in the following MSS.: Harleian 4971 and 3988, Addit. 17716, in the Brit. Mus.; Ee 4, 20 in Cantab. Univ. Library; B 14. 39, 40 in Trinity Col. Camb.; 182 at All Souls, Oxford, and 188 Magdalen Col. Oxford (cp. Stürzinger, Altfranzösiche Bibliothek), viii. pp. xvii-xix. The Introductions to these letters were edited in a Griefswald Dissertation (1898), by W. Uerkvitz.

[48] Stengel, op. cit. pp. 8-10.

[49] Romania, iv. p. 381, xxxii. p, 22.

[50] W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Cambridge, 1896, pp. 635 sqq.

[51] L. Menger, Anglo-Norman Dialect; Behrens, art. cit. pp. 960 sqq.; Brunot, Histoire de la langue française, i. pp. 319 sqq., 369.

[52] Brunot, op. cit. i. p. 331.

[53] Jusserand, Histoire littéraire du peuple anglais, 1896. p. 240 n.

[54] Brunot, op. cit. i. p. 369.

[55] P. Meyer commends Gower's French (Romania, xxxii. p. 43).

[56] T. R. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, London, 1892, p. 458.

[57] Livre ii. ch. xii.

[58] As in those of Olivier Basselin.

[59] Eustache Deschamps, Œuvres, ed. Crapelet, p. 91, quoted by Rathery, op. cit. p. 181 (cp. also English Political Songs, ed. T. Wright. Camden Soc., 1839).

[60] Jusserand, op. cit. p. 153 n. The fourteenth branch of the Roman is specially mentioned: cp. Brunot, op. cit. i. p. 369, n. 4.

[61] Brunot, op. cit. i. 330. It is not rare to find English pronunciation of French ridiculed in France, and Englishmen represented as talking a sort of gibberish; cp. Romania, xiv. pp. 99, 279, and Brunot, op. cit. p. 369 n.

[62] Behrens, op. cit. p. 957.

[63] Ed. E. Martin, 1882, l. 2351 sqq.

[64] Recueil général et complet des fabliaux, ed. Montaiglon et Raynaud, ii. p. 178.

[65] Maitland, Collected Papers, 1911, ii. p. 436; Freeman, op. cit. p. 536; Brunot, op. cit. i. p. 373.

[66] F. Watson, Religious Refugees and English Education, London, 1911, p. 6. There are numerous entries of such works in the Stationers' Register.

[67] Answer to Dr. Lindsey's epigram, Works, ed. 1841, i. p. 634.

[68] [H. Dell], The Frenchified Lady never in Paris, London, 1757.

[69] Pepys in his Diary notes the use of French in such phrases, and the Abbé Le Blanc (Lettres d'un Français sur les Anglais, à la Haye, 1745) was also struck by the custom.

[70] Bateson, Mediaeval England, p. 342; Warton, History of English Poetry, p. 10 n.

[71] Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd series, 1846, i. p. xi.

[72] M. A. E. Green (née Wood), Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, London, 1846; The Paston Letters, new edition by J. Gairdner, 3 vols., London, 1872-75; H. Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd series, London, 1846; J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Letters of the Kings of England, London, 1846; C. L. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century, Oxford, 1893, pp. 193 et seq.; Hallam, Literature of Europe, 6th ed., London, 1860, i. p. 54.

[73] "Que tout seigneur, baron, chevalier et honestes hommes de bonnes villes mesissent cure et dilligence de estruire et apprendre leurs enfans le langhe françoise, par quoy il en fuissent plus avec et plus costumier ens leurs gherres" (Froissart, quoted by Behrens, op. cit. p. 957 n.).

[74] Higden, ut supra.

CHAPTER II

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

These great changes which took place in the status of French in England did not, however, affect fundamentally the popularity of the language: they had to do with Anglo-French alone. French, as distinct from this and as a foreign language, received more attention than ever before, especially from the higher classes, and from travellers and merchants. It was the language of politeness and refinement in the eyes of Englishmen, not only as a result of the Conquest, but for its inherent qualities; and so it retained this position when it gave way to English or Latin in other spheres where its predominance had been due, either directly or indirectly, to the Conquest. French had enjoyed a social reputation in England before the arrival of the invaders,[75] and had already made some progress towards becoming the language which the English loved and cultivated above all modern foreign tongues, and to which they devoted for a great many years more care than they did to their own. "Doulz françois," writes an Englishman at the end of the fourteenth century in a treatise for teaching the language,[76] is the most beautiful and gracious language in the world, after the Latin of the schools,[77] "et de tous gens mieulx prisée et amée que nul autre; quar Dieu le fist se doulce et amiable principalement a l'oneur et loenge de luy mesmes. Et pour ce il peut bien comparer au parler des angels du ciel, pour la grant doulceur et biaultée d'icel"—a more eloquent tribute even than the more famous lines of Brunetto Latini. Another writer of the same period informs us that "les bones gens du Roiaume d'Engleterre sont embrasez a scavoir lire et escrire, entendre et parler droit François," and that he himself thinks it is very necessary for the English to know the "droict nature de François," for many reasons.[78] For instance, that they may enjoy intercourse with their neighbours, the good folk of the kingdom of France; that they may better understand the laws of England, of which a great many are still written in French; and also because "beaucoup de bones choses sont misez en François," and the lords and ladies of England are very fond of writing to each other in the same tongue.[79]

As a result of the altered circumstances which were modifying the attitude of the English, there is a corresponding change in the standard of the French which the manuals for teaching that language sought to attain. All the best text-books of the end of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries endeavour with few exceptions to impart a knowledge of the French of Paris, "doux françois de Paris" or "la droite language de Paris," as it was called, in contrast with the French of Stratford-atte-Bowe and other parts of England. Those authors of treatises for teaching French of whose lives we have any details, had studied French in France, at Paris, Orleans, or some other University town. The fact that many of their productions still contain numbers of words belonging to the Norman and other dialects does not diminish the importance and significance of their more ambitious aims. These pioneer works on the French language, written in England by Englishmen without the guidance of any similar work produced in France, were bound to contain archaisms as well as anglicisms.[80]

Fluency in speaking French was the chief need of the classes of society in which the demand for instruction was greatest. Correctness in detail was only of secondary importance, and grammar, though desirable, was not considered indispensable. The importance of speaking French naturally brought the subject of pronunciation to the fore. No doubt most of the early teachers shared the opinions of their successors, that rules and theoretical information were of little avail in teaching the sounds of the language, compared with the practice of imitation and repetition; nevertheless, many of them attempted to supply some information on the subject. When, in the second decade of the fifteenth century, another writer based a new treatise for teaching French on the vocabulary of Bibbesworth, which had then been current for well over a century, the chief point in which it differed from its original was precisely in the provision of guidance to facilitate pronunciation.

This new treatise was styled Femina,[81] because just as the mother teaches her young child to speak his native tongue, so does this work teach children to speak French naturally.[82] It covers almost exactly the same ground as the vocabulary of Bibbesworth, but, as in the case of the earlier imitation of the same work, the Nominale, the order of arrangement varies, and the whole is permeated with a lively humour which makes it at least equal in interest to the work on which it is based. The French lines are octosyllabic and arranged in distichs, each pair being followed by an English translation, which is given in full, contrary to the practice in the earlier works of the same kind. The author endeavours to teach the French of France[83] as distinguished from that of England, and, although he lavishes provincialisms from the local dialects of France—Norman, Picard, Walloon—in the main they are French provincialisms, and many of them may be due to errors on the part of the scribe. To assist pronunciation notes are provided at the bottom of the page, giving pseudo-English equivalents of the sounds of words written otherwise in the text.

The treatise opens with an exhortation to the child to learn French that he may speak fairly before wise men, for "heavy is he that is not taught":

Cap: primum docet rethorice loqui de assimilitudine bestiarum.

a b

Beau enfaunt pur apprendre

c d

En franceis devez bien entendre

Ffayre chyld for to lerne

In french ye schal wel understande

e

Coment vous parlerez bealment,

Et devaunt les sagez naturalment.

How ye schal speke fayre,

And afore ye wysemen kyndly.

f g

Ceo est veir que vous dy,

h i

Hony est il qui n'est norry.

That ys soth that y yow say

Hevy ys he that ys not taugth

k l

Parlez tout ditz com affaites

m

Et nenny come dissafaites

Spekep alway as man ys tauth

And not as man untauth.

Parlez imprimer de tout assemblé

n o

Dez bestez que Dieu ad formé.

Spekep fyrst of manere assemble alle

Of bestes that God hath y maked.

(a) beau debet legi bev, (b) enfaunt, (c) fraunceys, (d) bein, (e) belement, (f) ce, (g) cet vel eyztt, (h) Iil, (i) neot, (k) toutdiz, (l) afetes, (m) dissafetes, (n) beetez, (o) dv et non Dieu.

The subsequent chapters deal with the same subjects as in Bibbesworth, and sometimes the wording is almost identical. The concluding chapter, "De moribus infantis," is taken from another source, and gives admonitions for discreet behaviour, quoting the moral treatise of the pseudo-Cato, the Proverbs of Solomon, and the like. The passage in which Femina deals with the upbringing of the child may be of interest, as showing how the later author repeats the earlier, while altering the wording; and as throwing some light on the way French was then learnt:

Et quaunt il court en graunt age

Mettez ly apprendre langage.

And when he runs in great age[84]

Put him to learn language.

En fraunceys a luy vous devez dire

Comez il doit soun corps discrire.

In French to him ye shall say

How first he shall his body describe.

Et pur ordre garder de moun et ma,

Toun et ta, son et sa, masculino et feminino.

And for order to kepe of mon and ma,

Toun and ta, soun and sa, for ma souneth.

Quia ma sonat feminino moun masculino.

To femynyn gender and moun to masculyn.

Cy que en parle soit bien apris,

Et de nule homme escharnis.

So that in speach he be well learned,

And of no man scorned.

At the end is a 'calendar,' or table of words arranged alphabetically in three parallel columns. The first gives the orthography of the word, the second the pronunciation, and the third the explanation of its meaning and construction, which usually takes the form of an English equivalent.

In the meanwhile the grammatical study of French was not neglected. There are still extant numerous small treatises[85] dealing with different aspects of French grammar, chiefly the flexions, and belonging to the end of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The conjugation of verbs receives special attention, and there are several manuscripts providing paradigms and lists of the chief parts of speech—often very incorrect, and of more value as showing the interest taken in French in England than as illustrating any development in the history of the conjugations of French verbs. The usual verbs described in these fragmentary works[86] are amo, habeo, sum, volo, facio, and the French paradigms are generally accompanied by Latin ones, on which they are naturally based, and which were intended to help the student to understand the French ("cum expositione earundem in Latinis"). The two most considerable of these works known add many verbs to the list mentioned above. Of these the first, the Liber Donati,[87] gives examples of law French rather than literary French;[88] but the other, written in French, endeavours to teach "douce françois de Paris"—cy comence le Donait soloum douce franceis de Paris.[89] The Donait belongs to the fifteenth century, and is the work of one R. Dove, who also wrote some Regulae de Orthographia Gallica in Latin,[90] which show considerable resemblance to those of the earlier Orthographia Gallica. The same is true of some of the rules devoted to orthography in the Liber Donati, which also owes something to the work of 'T. H., Student of Paris,' either in the original form, or, more probably, in the recast, due to Canon Coyfurelly. In this respect, Coyfurelly continues the efforts of the earlier writer to purify English spelling of French—efforts which at this time would meet with more success than was the case earlier.[91]

Another topic touched on in the Regulae of R. Dove is the formation of the plural of nouns, and of the feminine of adjectives. The substance of one of these rules may be quoted, as an example of the failure of these early writers to grasp general principles. All nouns ending in ge, like lange, says the grammarian, take s in the plural, as langes; all nouns ending in urc, as bourc, have z or s in the plural and drop the c, as bours; all nouns ending in nyn, as conyn, take s in the plural, as chemyns; all nouns ending in eyn, as peyn, form their plural by adding s, as peyns. Such is the rule for the formation of the plural of nouns, and that for the feminine of adjectives, which follows, is on the same lines. Pronouns also received some attention from these early grammarians. The Liber Donati[92] contains a few remarks on the personal, demonstrative and possessive pronouns, giving the different forms for the singular and plural and the various cases; thus it tells us that jeo and sometimes moy are used for I (ego) in the nominative case, and in other cases moy or me in the singular, while nous is used for the plural in all cases, and so forth.

We thus see that the verbs, nouns and pronouns received consideration, varying in degree, at the hands of these pioneers in French grammar. Neither were the indeclinable parts of speech neglected; at the end of the Liber Donati there is a list of some of these as well as of the ordinal and cardinal numbers in both Latin and French, while the Donait gives the numbers only. Some manuscripts contain lists of adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions in Latin and French.[93] Others give lists of the cardinal and ordinal numbers in French, and one adds to these a nomenclature of the different colours.[94] The names of the days, months, and feast-days were another favourite subject.

Of these small treatises that which nearest approaches the form of a comprehensive grammar is the Liber Donati, which includes observations on the orthography and pronunciation, on verbs and pronouns, and lists of adverbs, conjunctions, and numerals. But there appeared at the beginning of the fifteenth century, before 1409, a more comprehensive treatise of some real value—the Donait françois pur briefment entroduyr les Anglois en la droit langue du Paris et de pais la d'entour,[95] a work which but for its very many anglicisms might be placed on a level with some of the similar grammars of the sixteenth century.[96] The origin of this Donait is interesting. A certain Englishman, John Barton, born and bred in the county of Cheshire, but a student of Paris, and a passionate lover of the French language, engaged some good clerks to compose the Donait, at his own great cost and trouble, for the benefit of the English, who are so eager ("embrasez") to learn French.[97] Judging from the lines with which Barton closes his short but communicative preface, the work was intended mainly for the use of young people—the "chers enfants" and "tres douces pucelles," 'hungering' to learn French: "Pur ce, mes chiers enfantz et tresdoulcez puselles," he writes, "que avez fam d'apprendre cest Donait scachez qu'il est divisé en belcoup de chapiters si come il apperera cy avale." Barton then retires to make way for his 'clerks,' whose remarks are entirely confined to grammatical teaching and who, like Barton, write in French.

Most of the early treatises on French grammar which appeared in England are written in Latin. Latin appears to have been the medium through which French was learnt and explained to a large extent, although in the case of the riming vocabularies English was used for teaching the young children for whom these nomenclatures were chiefly written. But grammar, probably intended to be learnt by older students, was usually studied in Latin, which was also found to be a help in learning French. Students are told to base French orthography on that of Latin, and there are constant references from French words to their Latin originals. The Donait soloum douce franceis de Paris is apparently the only work of any importance written in French before that of Barton. English was not used for this purpose before the sixteenth century, when it was almost invariably employed, even by Frenchmen. A grammar such as Barton's would, no doubt, be read and translated with the help of a tutor; and it is highly probable that the children for whom it was intended would have previously acquired some practical knowledge of French from some such elementary treatise as Bibbesworth's vocabulary. Moreover, French was so generally in use in the higher classes of society, and had been for so long a kind of semi-national tongue, that it would hardly be approached as an entirely foreign language, as in later times. In writing a French grammar in French, Barton and those who followed the same course merely adopted for the teaching of French a method in common use in the teaching of Latin. The advisability of writing French grammars in French was a question, as we shall see, much discussed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as well as in much more recent times.

The clerks employed by Barton made free use of the observations on French grammar which had appeared previously. But their work had an additional value; the rules are stated with considerable clearness and are usually correct.[98] The opening chapters deal with the letters and their pronunciation, set forth, like the rest of the grammar, in a series of questions and answers:

Quantez letters est il? Vint. Quellez? Cinq voielx et quinse consonantez. Quelx sont les voielx et ou seroit ils sonnés? Le premier vouyel est a et serra sonné en la poetrine, la seconde est e et serra sonné en la gorge, le tiers est i et serra sonné entre les joues, le quart est o et serra sonné du palat de la bouche, le quint est u et serra sonné entre les levres.

To these observations on the vowels are added a few on the consonants, and "belcoup de bones rieules" (six in all) treating the avoidance of hiatus between two consonants and the effects of certain vowels and consonants on each other's pronunciation. Next come a few observations on the parts of speech; for "apres le Chapitre des lettres il nous fault dire des accidens." Instead of giving a number of isolated instances as rules for the formation of the plural, the general rule for the addition of s to the singular is evolved and emphasized by this advice: "Pour ceo gardez vous que vous ne mettez pas le singuler pour le pulier (pluriel) ne a contraire, si come font les sots." Further, we must avoid imitating the 'sottez gens,' to whom frequent reference is made, in using one person of a tense for another, and saying je ferra for je ferray.[99] In this section of the work the rules follow each other without any orderly arrangement.[100]

At about the same time an English poet is said to have written a French grammar, as another poet, Alexander Barclay, actually did later. An early bibliographer[101] includes in his list of Lydgate's works one entitled Praeceptiones Linguae Gallicae, in one book, of which no further trace remains to-day. Lydgate, however, was well acquainted with French; he made the customary foreign tour, besides visiting Paris again on a later occasion in attendance on noble patrons, and put his knowledge of the language to the test by translating or adapting several works from the French, like most contemporary writers.[102] The same early authority informs us that, as soon as Lydgate returned from his travels, he opened a school for the sons of noblemen, possibly at Bury St. Edmunds. Probably Lydgate wrote a French grammar for the use of these young noblemen, who would certainly have to learn the language; and, after serving their immediate purpose, these rules, we may surmise, were lost and soon forgotten.

In the fifteenth century, instruction in French epistolary style of all degrees continued to be supplied in collections of model letters; and at the end of the fourteenth century a new kind of book for teaching French appeared—the Manière de Langage or model conversation book, intended for the use of travellers, merchants, and others desiring a conversational and practical rather than a thorough and grammatical knowledge of French. Contrary to the custom, prevalent at this later period, of providing English translations, the earliest of these contain no English gloss, but simply the French text without any attempt at even the slight grammatical instruction provided in the vocabularies. Their sole purpose was to give the traveller or wayfarer a supply of phrases and expressions on the customary topics; grammatical instruction could be sought elsewhere.

The earliest of these[103] is the first work for teaching French to which a definite date can be assigned. A sort of dedication at the end is dated from Bury St. Edmunds, "la veille du Pentecote, 1396." We have not the same definite information as to the author.[104] The anglicisms make it clear that he was an Englishman, while the references to Orleans and its university, and the trouble there between the students and the townspeople in 1389, suggest that he was a student of that university, then much frequented by the English and other foreigners, especially law students. He may have been Canon M. T. Coyfurelly, Doctor of Law of Orleans,[105] and author of the contemporary recasting of T. H.'s treatise on French orthography. The author tells us he undertook his task at the request of a "tres honoré et tres gentil sire"; that he had learnt French "es parties la mere," and that he wrote according to the knowledge he acquired there, which, he admits, may not be perfect. Indeed his French is full of anglicisms; que homme is written for 'that man'; œuvrer for 'worker'; que for 'why,' and so on; there are also many grammatical mistakes such as wrong genders, au homme, de les for des, de le for du. This "manière" must have enjoyed a very considerable popularity, judging from the number of manuscripts, of various dates, still in existence. And, in modern times, it presents a greater interest to the reader than any of the treatises mentioned before, partly from the naïveté and quaintness of its style, partly owing to the vivid picture it gives us of the life of the time at which it was written.

It opens in a religious strain, with a prayer that the students of the book may have "sens naturel" to learn to speak, pronounce, and write "doulz françois":

A noster commencement nous dirons ainsi: en nom du pere, filz et Saint Esperit, amen. Ci comence la Maniere de Language qui t'enseignera bien a droit parler et escrire doulz françois selon l'usage et la coustume de France. Primiers, au commencement de nostre fait et besogne nous prierons Dieu devoutement et nostre Dame la benoite vierge Marie sa tres douce mere, et toute la glorieuse compaigne du Saint reaume de Paradis celeste, ou Dieux mette ses amis et ses eslus, de quoi vient toute science, sapience, grace et entendement et tous manieres vertuz, qu'il luy plaist de sa grande misericorde et grace tous les escoliers estudianz en cest livre ainsi abruver et enluminer de la rousée de sa haute sapience et entendement, qu'ils pouront avoir sens naturel d'aprendre a parler, bien soner et a droit escrire doulz françois.

Then, because man is the noblest of all created things, the author proceeds to give a list of the parts of his body, which recalls the old riming vocabularies. This, however, is the only portion in which conversation is sacrificed to vocabulary. In the rest of the work, though the vocabulary is increased by alternative phrases wherever possible, it is never allowed to encroach too much on the conversation.

The second chapter presents a scene between a lord and his page, in which the page receives minute instructions for commissions to the draper, the mercer, and upholsterer—an excellent opportunity of introducing a large choice of words. Conversation for travellers is the subject of the third chapter, the most important, and certainly the most interesting in the whole book. It tells, "Coment un homme chivalchant ou cheminant se doit contenir et parler sur son chemin qui voult aler bien loin hors de son pais." After witnessing the preparations for the journey, the reader accompanies the lord and his page through an imaginary journey in France. Dialogue and narrative alternate, and the lord talks with his page Janyn or whiles away the time with songs:

Et quant il aura achevée sa chanson il comencera a parler a son escuier ou a ses escuiers, ainsi disant: "Mes amys, il est bien pres de nuyt," vel sic: "Il sera par temps nuyt." Doncques respont Janyn au son signeur bien gentilment en cest maniere: "Vrayement mon seigneur, vous ditez verité"; vel sic: "vous ditez voir"; vel sic: "vous dites vray"—"Je panse bien qu'il feroit mieux pour nous d'arester en ce ville que d'aller plus avant maishuy. Coment vous est avis?"—"Ainsi comme vous vuillez, mon seigneur." "Janyn!"—"Mon signeur?"—"Va devant et prennez nostre hostel par temps."—"Si ferai-je, mon seigneur." Et s'en vait tout droit en sa voie, et quant il sera venu a l'ostel il dira tout courtoisement en cest maniere. "Hosteler, hosteler," etc.

The page then proceeds to make hasty preparations for the coming of his master to the inn, and we next assist at the arrival of the lord and his evening meal and diversions—another opportunity for the introduction of songs—and his departure in the morning towards Étampes and Orleans.